Booker Fest

Every year, on Labor Day Weekend, 100 Men’s Hall hosts Booker Fest, a three-day performance festival. Booker Fest is 100 Men Hall’s premier fundraiser event, celebrating the one-of-a-kind, greatest piano player the region has ever produced, James Carroll Booker III. Born in New Orleans and raised in Bay Saint Louis by his aunt, James Booker learned to play piano here. Every Labor Day weekend, Booker Fest draws over 400 visitors from around the region, nationally, and even internationally to celebrate three days of the legacy of the musical genius who mentored performers such as Dr. John and Harry Connick, Jr.

The epitome of Crescent City keyboard artistry, James Booker is known by many nicknames — the greatest New Orleans pianist, the Black Liberace, the Piano Pope, the Piano Prince, the Bayou Maharajah. Dr. John called Booker, "The best black, gay, one-eyed junkie piano genius New Orleans [and Bay Saint Louis] has ever produced."